Essay on Mind-Body Duality Through Art: Reflections on Emilie O'Brien's Presentation

Introduction

I chose to reflect on Emilie O'Brien's presentation because I find the subject of the disconnection between mind and body very interesting. The subject captured my interest as I have experienced similar feelings of disconnection in my personal life. Three years ago, I started meditation sessions and participated in 3 meditation retreats, which helped to me realize the existence and importance of mind-body duality. In Emilie O'Brien's presentation, art is seen as a way of humanizing each other's stories and a mirror of revealing possibilities of what a better world can look like.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In the presentation, Emilie O'Brien, states the importance of considering all kinds of relationships personal, community, nature, space and that of objects. He states on the aspect that our body speaks to us and the essential ways one can access the messages as signaled by their bodies. He encourages the audience to slow down in their actions and thoughts to give the mind sufficient time to process the messages conveyed by the body. He goes ahead to stress on the importance of making space to listen to the stories the body wants to convey and tell the story by actualizing the body needs. This process helps one rediscover themselves and improve their engagement with their bodies. This can be achieved successfully by first having the intentions and setting up the mindset to achieve a progressive understanding of one's body desires and meeting them to fulfill one's life.

The title of the session given by Emilie O'Brien was "Art, the Body, and the Gift of Gratitude." Emilie discussed how our bodies are essential and how we often take our bodies for granted, we don't realize how it can have an important impact on our well-being and how we could greatly benefit from actually listening to what our bodies have to say to us. Art objects, metaphors, creation, and intuition are overlooked tools that are very powerful to develop more healthy relationships with our relatives and friends, nature, objects and space. Besides, Emilie explained how art is a non-linear concept and an amazing tool that can be used every day to rediscover the relationships that we have with our environment.

Emilie provided us with alternatives which were more positive and healthier ways of viewing our relationships with the world around us. For example, the buying and curing instead of selling and transformation is a principle of reciprocity which shows the giving and receiving the spirit. This aspect of reciprocity illustrates to the audience of the presentation on the importance of giving back to nature as much as we receive. When one buys and sells, they are able to give away what they don't need and receive what they require. This is satisfying the needs of both the seller and the other buyer hence achieving the reciprocity principle in the society. The comparison between the widening circles of relationships in the linear capacity as well as hierarchical shows the importance of balancing life in various existing ways. When one improves the linear relationships with their colleagues it is important for them to also consider their hierarchical relationships. This balance in one's life ensures a content lifestyle and the body gets in harmony with its surrounding hence achieving a feeling of gratitude.

According to Emilie O'Brien's presentation, imagination is taken as the life of its own. It is seen as an expression of consciousness that goes beyond human thinking and viewed as a challenge in balancing one's reality despite improving creativity. Imagination is seen as a creative way to observe images which acts as a host of guides, messengers, helpers, protectors, agents, influences as well as psychic functionaries among others. Art as a non-linear piece of creativity connects unrelated ideas using various objects to communicate a particular message. It helps one in rediscovering the relationships of small everyday opportunities and helps in learning who we are.

The black plastic objects in the form of shoes as illustrated in the presentation are boots that the author wears. It is clear of the author's insensitivity to the body's need of having cleaner boots. The boots are scuffed and lack a decent polishing which is necessary to enhance its appearance. The symbol F is used by the author as a reminder of Emilie O'Brien's grandfather Frank, whom he misses dearly. This shows the importance of art and the various messages they signify and how they relate to one's life and circumstances. The broken but related pieces of art indicate that it is still possible to recover an original piece of art despite the initial condition. This indicates the possibility of mending the conflicts in one's life and reverting back to a proper and functioning despite the scars that are left behind. The various lengths of the broken pieces of sticks show the varieties available in the society and their different functions as they fit in a different usage scenario.

According to Emilie O'Brien's presentation, imagination is held with deep significance in one's life. It plays a big part in the manifestation of the body desires and the need for one to appreciate their existence. In this regard, the presentation seeks to help the audience find ways of understanding the relationship between their bodies and consciousness as well as help in connecting the two. This helps one achieve their purpose in life as their body and soul functions are in harmony.

Reseau Quebecois D'action Pour La Sante Des Femmes

I chose the Reseau quebecois d'action to pour la sante des femmes and its mission because I needed to understand biomedical medicine, mental health as well as women health. The health of the human body is determined by many factors including environmental, genetic components and health habits among others. It is vital for one to watch their health as it determines one's quality of life.

Lydia's first presented us the group and its mission. The Quebec Women Health Network aims at deconstructing biomedical medicine, Unpacking 'mental health', Circumscribing medicalization of women' health. The biomedical medicine aspect touched on western science methods as the center of treatment in modern society. The presentation addressed the limitations of the methods in that, they were devised by a small group. It was clear that the female group was isolated in the development and research work concerning western scientific methods. Women were silenced by isolation from the research group and were denied participation in the virtue of their incapacity and consideration as a weaker gender. The medical field was associated with complexities and the need for super brain abilities to perform medical practices and in the study as a career. Given the medical health of women and the perception of the uterus in the society in regard to menstrual periods, women were considered incapacitated to study medicine practices.

Fear was instilled in women as the arbitrary standards were raised, the pressure to perform was considered beyond their ability and the science progress authoritativeness. Doubt was propagated against the female gender in performing at the medical field and women were excluded from the medical studies. Data was manipulated in favor of the male medical practitioners and lies propagated in the market to disregard women attempting to pursue medical research work. According to the presentation, it is vital to reduce social inequalities and this can be done through the demand of a feminist holistic health system. Women should be encouraged to improve their self-love which increases their self-esteem as well as tap into their healing powers. The female gender is tasked to ask for more transparency on clinical studies and drugs marketing. The deployment of the use of placebo should be effected, as well as strengthen pharmacovigilance authorities. There should be a systematic request for women and diversity to be included in the studies.

Lydya introduced to the class a discussion on mental health by asking us what we thought were health determinants ''facteurs sante''. She then clarified and made us realize how much the environment is overlooked as a health determinant even though the environment (living conditions, ecology, social interactions) accounts for 55-60% of health determinant factors. Health habits follow with 25-30%, the organization of the health system accounts for 20-25%, and the genetic component accounts for 5-15% of being healthy. The presentation highlighted the need of the society to prioritize environmental conservation as well as improved living conditions. It was emphasized that enhancing one's social interactions played a vital role in one's health. It was also clear that cleanliness is critical in the overall health of an individual. The focus on enhancing our environmental surroundings was in a bid to ensure a bigger percentage of our health is taken care of hence assured health stability.

Lydya talked about the representation of the uterus throughout the ages. The uterus was seen as a wandering womb by Hippocrates and Greco roman doctors in the past. It was seen as an animal that when deprived of sexual intercourse or pregnancy, became agitated and wandered in the female sometimes even body up to her throat causing the women to suffocate. The theory of the 'wandering uteri was used to explain the cause of hysteria in women. In 1859, 25% of women suffered from hysteria and had very vague symptoms and still today, chronic fatigue syndrome is four times more common in women than in men. Lydya raised an interesting point and further discussed it on why it is that such a mystery around the symptoms often qualified as 'vague'.

The uteri theory in the past was used as a baseline in explaining the observed double consumption of antidepressants by women compared to men. Women were also observed to consume three times more of mood stabilizers indicating their gross instability in moods as a result of the wandering uterus. It was alarming that women consumed five times more antipsychotic medications as compared to men. This indicated why the female gender was considered unstable and hence unable to equal their male counterparts in the carried out western medicine research work. Despite the consideration of women as weaker sex regarding the various medical conditions associated with them, women were considered vital in society. Women performed various tasks including, house chores, children care, caregiver, mental load as well as the body image pressure to appear beautiful in the 'eyes' of the society. In this regard, every single women cycle was medicalized including puberty menstruation contraception. Pregnancy could be observed and taken care of by the medical practitioners, and menopause could be determined and action is taken before its past date.

The Quebec Women Health Network aim of discussing Deconstructing biomedical medicine, unpacking 'mental health', and Circumscribing medicalization of women' health was successful. The subjects were attended to satisfactorily and the presentation was clear and understandable. The factors needed to enhance one's health were highlighted and discussed and they included genetic components, environmental, and health habits among others. Factors hindering the participation of the female gender in medical research work were discussed and relevant recommendations prescribed. The community was urged to accept women and consider them in the vital medical assignments as they are capable and equipped as much as men. In this regard, it was clear from the presentation that myths in the society are a hindrance to the medical fraternity and that measures should be put in place to improve the standards of medical practice...